After a school fight lands 17-year old Daje Shelton in a court-supervised alternative high school, she's determined to turn things around and make a better future for herself in her rough St. Louis neighborhood. But focusing on school is tough as she loses multiple friends to gun violence, falls in love for the first time, and becomes pregnant with a boy, Ahkeem, just as Ferguson erupts a few miles down the road. Through Daje’s intimate coming-of-age story, For Ahkeem illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.

As part of the many events around campus honoring Black History Month, this screening is hosted as a collaborative community dialogue and produced by the Social Justice Film Festival & Institute, PopUpJustice, and the UW departments of SOCIAL WORK, AMERICAN ETHNIC STUDIES, LAW SOCIETIES & JUSTICE, and GEOGRAPHY.